Originally Posted by
Captain Fred Archer
Marty,
Ahhhhh, ha, ha, ha! It keeps getting better and better! Al is an adult friend of thirty years?! That explains a whole bunch of things that were actually bothering the heck out of me.
No, Al is not 30 he and I are 50! What kids we are! Cody is the adult on the boat. He is respectful, polite, never talks back (almost) and dosen't curse and he does what he is told. Guys who come on the boat alway complements me on how well he handles everything and how well mannered he is. That's the way I raised him. I try to watch my language, but after a maddening week at work, its nice to let it all out on the boat. you'll laugh, Alfred is a hair cutter in a highend salon, he talks all day with the ulta rich and is the nicest, politist guy and would never think he had a trash mouth like on the boat.
Since I thought he was one of your kids' buddies, same age, it really bugged me the way that he talked smack to you, and first watching him have a schnit fit when the hook pulled on that first fish and he was madly blaming you and just about losing his mind - hell, you had left the scene long before! Remember, I was thinking that he was a kid and what he could have used right about then was a swift kick in the posterior instead of you being nice to him in spite of how he was behaving.
And then the outburst while he was "driving" and you were begging and pleading with him to turn, slow down, speed up, or whatever - I figured the rod would go in the holder when he said what he said and Al was gonna get conked, but you laughed instead. It all makes sense now. An old time buddy is a different deal - we probably all have ones whose behavior we tolerate and even laugh our arses off at when they lose it and go postal. Actually, I've known quite a few of that type, one of whom used to get so mad, he'd punch himself in the face - and no love taps, either. "Bam!" Then with blood pouring all over the place and he'd snap out it.
Al was just sick of hearing me say "RIGHT-RIGHT-RIGHT" for an hour and forty five minutes...tuff Al! I knew my complaint would get him fired up..my entertainment center!
I know that you know how to handle multiples and done right they are actually pretty boring after the initial bar bombing is over with. Like you, we left any unbit bars out while we fought the hooked fish, but believe it or not, once we started running monochromatic, all the same size and color bars that matched that day's "hatch", we wound up with full covers more times than not and if any bars "escaped", they got stomped on real soon.
Standard procedure was also to unhook caught tunas and flip the bar right back behind the boat, very short with the drag backed off a little. Down in Mexico we used to get a sort of "production line" of new fish that were following the hooked ones, I guess, nailing those near bars when they came up to the boat. This isn't for the faint of heart, but it often put considerable numbers of extra fish onboard and created what I guess you'd call "an extended multiple."
As I have said many times, the real test of a tuna spread is what happens when a school - and unlike the solitary or small pack pelagics, that's how tuna travel, in schools - is raised; hook 'em in bunches and you're doing it right. Hook 'em one or two at a time and you're doing something wrong and IMO that's usually only having a few of the right size and color lures out there that get bit and other stuff that the fish aren't feeding on and so, aren't interested in. That, and having a pile of the right "artificial chum" in your pattern for the fish to compete over when they come into your spread are two extremely important keys to maximizing the tuna multiples that you get shots at.
Other keys are to keep that auto driver tuned up and going and if Al's along, DON'T LET HIM DRIVE!
p.s. After watching the video a couple of times, I strongly suspect that the bar leader got badly chafed on the anchor line of that buoy that you were so worried about. If that was one of our little bars, the main leader was 300# (not for chafe protection, but for big fish) and nothing on a tuna could do that to it - at least, not that I have ever seen.
Fred, that was 400# leader material on the smoker lure the Bigeye had eaten, nothing light!
Just in from a customer, Matt Goldsworthy up in Northern California salmon country...23 alberts, all on The Little SuperBar like the one pictured. He said that the fish were stuffed with 1.5" sauries and 3" lantern fish and very few were caught by the other boats on the fish, some of whom were trolling "big", 6 or 9" bars and not getting bit on them. Think small!
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote
